1 – Carry Tampons…
The humble tampon makes for excellent tinder due to the fine cotton – to fire it up cover it in dry dirt and ignite. Ideal for cleaning wounds too.
2 - …And Gravy
Meat stock cubes are very handy. They contain salt for hydration, make excellent hot drinks and cane be used to flavour plants and food from the wild.
3 – Mend Broken Bones
Whack back in a dislocated limb on your own by attaching a rock or log via a cord to the limb. Then rotate your body or the limb with as little movement as possible but quickly and sharply and painfully.
4 – Sterilise Burns
For burns, sterilise dressings by scorching the cloth with a candle and clean the burn with a solution made from boiling oak or beech bark.
5 – Wash With Neetles
Juice from crushed nettles mixed in equal parts with fresh water can be used as a body wash and hair shampoo to reduce lice infestations.
6 – Smoking Kills…
Kill stomach worms by chewing tobacco and swallowing it. Repeat this for a few days and nicotine will kill the parasites.
7 – Drink Dew
Dying of thirst in the jungle? Early morning dew can be collected from most vegetation. Mop up the moisture with a cloth and wring it out. You can collect several pints in hours.
8 – Tend Wounds
Maggot therapy can treat rotting flesh. Expose the wound to flies, which will lay eggs. Check for maggots, removing too many, and sponge away the frothy red fluid they produce. When all dead flesh is removed flush them off with urine.
9 – Make Rope
Animal sinew and gut make great rope. Dry them and separate into the required thickness, then wet them before you manipulate. The tied knot will be extra tight when it dries.
10 – Build A Cooker
Make a cooker in the desert by pouring oil into a well in the sand. The oil and sand will combine and burn slowly enough to heat food or water.
11 – Make A Portaloo
Make a bog by setting an old tyre in a three-pole frame. Invaluable to morale, particularly when suffering from the screaming ab-dabs.
12 – Attract Rabbits
Whistle a rabbit to death. A high-pitched kissing sound with your lips on the back of your hand can actually get them to come to you. Then kill them.
13 – Boil Animal Fat
Make survival soap by melting animal fat in boiling water and draining it to harden in a tray. Fill a sock with cold ash, soak the sock and hang it so the water and ash drip out. Re-melt the grease, add to the water and ash then boil until it thickens. Leave to cool.
14 – Make A Compass
Improvise a compass by placing a stick vertically in the ground. Mark the end of the shadow with a stone, after 20 minutes mark it again. These are east to west. Now place your feet on them and you’ll be facing north.
15 – Meet The Locals
Don’t offend them – lay down any weapons, spread out your palm and have an escape route planned.
16 – Wear Mittens
In the Arctic frozen hands can kill. Make mittens from spare socks covered with polythene bags, but muskrat hides properly removed and turned inside out make excellent gloves.
17 – Kill Pain
Smoke the root of the Strangling Fig to kill pain. Pull them from the ground, cut to 10cm lengths, puff.
18 – Lose Leeches
Don’t pull off leeches – their jaws will just cause infection. Put salt or ash on it or approach it with the end of a fag or squeeze nicotine from tobacco onto it.
19 – Ride An Avalanche
Stay on top of avalanches by using a backstroke swimming motion. If you’re underneath, make a breathing space for your nose, and spit into the hole to determine your way up. Then start digging.
20 – Escape!
Escape from prison by attaching metal to a line and throwing it over the electric fence. Repeat until the guards are convinced it’s malfunctioning and turn off the electricity.
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